Cats! Cats! Cats!

CJOB seems to have broken a story this morning about a proposed Responsible Pet Ownership By-law that among other things, will require cat owners to license their cats, at a cost of $15/cat. This proposed by-law would also only allow pet stores to sell cats and dogs that have come from a shelter rather than breeders (or worse, places like puppy mills).

Emma

 Of course, the new "tax" (not a tax, but that's what the crazy people started calling it) on cats got all sorts of people calling in and complaining. Are you kidding me? Heck, it could almost be considered unfair that currently dog owners are forced to pay $64 for an unfixed dog and $29 for a pooch that has gone under the knife. A responsible pet owner should be happy to pay the fee, and yes, it should be higher for pets that aren't fixed (the proposed fee for cats that aren't fixed is $50). I find it interesting that they are going to want to charge a fee of $300 for people to be allowed to sell animals, that seems like it will be a little difficult to regulate. I foresee a lot of people who are trying to get rid of their one pet (vs. obvious breeders) selling cat supplies that come with a free cat on kijiji.


I think some important questions to be asked are how exactly this $15/cat is going to be spent; currently they are saying it will go towards subsidizing spay and neuter programs, however there should be clarification as to how much, if any will be going towards programs that trap and spay/neuter feral cats and then release them. The sound bites I heard this morning seemed to imply that simply forcing people to license their cats was going to get rid of the feral cat population, which is currently estimated at 80,000-150,000!! Clearly, that is not remotely realistic.

Having a pet is not a right, but a luxury. As pet owners we always need to be aware that a hefty medical bill can pop up, if people claim that they can't afford the $15 (I presume per year) for cat ownership then what does that say about their ability to care for their pet if it becomes sick? Now, I'm a mere mortal, I of course don't have some sort of secret stockpile of funds to pay vet bills but in the back of my mind I know that I might have to. The beautiful Emma pictured above decided to test her will to live to the tune of $600 in 2011 (I am very thankful she only felt the need to spend that much before she got the spring back in her step!)

That said, I am a believer that pets are an important part of a persons overall mental well-being and I don't begrudge lower-income people or even transient people for wanting to be pet owners, so long as they are responsible pet owners as well. Even if people just want to think of the $15 as added insurance that their pet will be returned to them if it goes missing it's well worth it.

If you're on facebook, a couple of groups well worth liking are the Winnipeg Lost Cat Alert and the Winnipeg Lost Dog Alert. Currently the dogs have 6,149 likes and the cats only have 1,582 - lets boost those cat numbers! For all the crap you have filling up your facebook feed wouldn't it be great if along with all the funny/fake-motivational/spiritual/borderline-porn pictures you could help reunite a pet with its owner?

And lastly, I know I've posted it before, but it's such a good one:

It's finally here... sort of; Roof still caving in

A month or so ago I attended a meeting to talk about the new garbage collection system that will be going city-wide, but more specifically about here in the North End as they replace the aging autobins. I live tweeted the event, mostly because I couldn't just stand up an yell and shout like I wanted to (although that didn't stop one crazy dude who kept getting off track) and partly because I don't normally attend things that people might be interested in hearing updates from.

One of the pieces of information that I was most excited to hear about was the new "App" that the City was going to have for/about waste collection. One of the things I find most difficult with reporting bulky waste to 311 is the inane questions that I get back from the operators before they will submit my complaint "ok, so you say there is an abandoned sofa behind the address in question (because god forbid you don't give them a specific address), how many inches is it away from the alley? (because if they deem it to be on private property, you know, not FULLY in the lane even though it's clearly abandoned then they send a different department, who will issue an order, and then the resident of the house will move it the few inches into the lane, and then you have to call it in again to have it picked up...) Does the sofa have a floral print or is a solid colour? (ok, I may have made this one up, but I'm sure I'll be asked it one day) So, it was my belief based on what we were told at the meeting, that an App was on the way that would allow us to report these things direct from our phone, including sending photos!

Well, the App is here, but, disappointingly does not offer what I was hoping for. The majority of the links seem to direct you to contact 311, have no automatic link to have your phone dial it, and the email function is also not at all what I find user friendly. It will let you send an email only from your email address set up on your phone (which I don't have as I have had difficulty setting up my Hotmail/Gmail and having them sync with things in real time) which does not offer the option of attaching a photo even if I could manage to use it. What it really needs is a built in contact sheet, similar to what their website offers for contacting 311 that does not require you to send it from your email directly but just from that page. (I'm sure there is a technical term for that but I have no idea what it is.)

Notice there is not even a email link on this page, nor mention of abandoned wast

The App also does not make mention of what to do in the case of illegally abandoned waste and how someone might go about reporting that. To be fair, the City doesn't seem to have been the ones to develop this App, but they need to be sure they're getting their moneys worth from this "My Waste" company and have them help to tailor it to our community.

This whole thing brings me to an excellent example of how I would use this App, if it worked in the way I wanted to. Following up on the work of A Day in the Hood, it seems as though the house that has been collapsing upon itself since at least September 15th 2010 (MY first email to the City about this problem) still isn't fixed. Sure, the house has gotten some attention, it looks a lot better from the front street now, but why the heck is the back addition still in this condition?

The roof keeps falling down further, and further...

This house is not occupied and the person who owns the property owns numerous properties in the community - if the cost of dealing with the problem is too great, perhaps they can sell off a property or two to help with that. If this property was actually occupied (as a primary/only residence) I could see the City extending leniency to allow the owner to raise the funds needed to fix the problem however I see no reasonable reason for this problem to continue.

Meet Winnipeg Girl this weekend!! (and other interesting things)

I know, I know, it's finally here - try to contain your excitement. This Saturday is the big cleanup in my neighbourhood! I know you all already have it in your calendars from when I first told you about it in procrastination post, but in case you *forgot* here are the details again: Meet at Ralph Brown Community Centre, 460 Andrews St. (but better directions would be at the corner of Machray and McGregor, it faces McGregor) at 10am this Saturday. There you can opt to pick a street/back lane to help clean or randomly be assigned one. Winnipeg Girl would love it very much if you would pick Boyd or College Ave. Hint hint.

After spending a mere two hours cleaning up, bags/gloves etc., provided, head on back to Ralph Brown at noon for a free BBQ and a chance to win some great prizes! Tips for how to make cleanups fun:

- Note the places where the most garbage comes from (McD's, Timmies, Dollarama, etc.) and mention it to their manager next time you visit the establishment. Or even better, write their corporate office
- Spot the by-law violation! Careful, this one is easy to get distracted by.
- Name that gang! This is a fun one for graffiti in back lanes - that being said we've cleaned a lot of it up. FYI, if you do ever find yourself with new "artwork" on your garage/fence, just pop on down to any police station and request a voucher for a free gallon of paint to paint it over. Unless you have biceps like tree trunks do not take the graffiti removal wipes. They require more elbow grease than you have. Trust me.
- Meeting new people - the cleanups really are a great way to meet some of your neighbours (or my neighbours if I'm dragging you in from elsewhere!)

Now, if garbage isn't really your thing I haven't been able to guilt convince you into coming out for the cleanup then maybe you're more up for a Jane's Walk. Although the timing and locations work out very nicely if you come to the cleanup and then head to one of the afternoon walks with a belly full of free food. Just sayin'....

Now next weekend also holds some exciting things, like the Giveaway Weekend, three cheers for free stuff! I mostly use it as an excuse to drive around my favourite neighbourhoods looking at the houses but free cool stuff is an added bonus. In fact the chair that my butt is currently plunked down on, and my knees for that matter (it's one of those fancy kneely chairs) is from the giveaway weekend last fall.

See you all on Saturday morning!!

An unusual dilemma

Those that know me (or read me) know that I'm usually pretty quick to report by-law violations, especially in rental properties. There is a property close to me, I've affectionately dubbed it the "drive by shooting house" due to an incident from a few years ago, that violates at least a few by-laws including missing eavestroughs, a questionable fence and through the neighbourhood gossip line I'm told that the basement is caving in on itself, among others.  Now, I've actually reported all of these violations before, in an Al Capone sort of way of dealing with problem tenants (getting the landlord to pay attention to his property and therefore being aware of his problem tenants because he's getting nasty notices from the City).

Now the dilemma ensues... the most recent batch of problem tenants have disappeared into the night. I'm pretty sure it was a midnight move and no idea what prompted it but it certainly wasn't at a "traditional" moving time of the 1st or the 15th. They've been gone for a while now and it's kind of nice - no garbage being thrown in the yard, no poor dog tied up and barking for hours at a time, no sketchy van coming and going 17 times in an afternoon (I run that many errands every day, don't you?). Oh, and I certainly miss the home visits by the Street Connections Van to that place - can't keep your yard clean, but hey, you're using clean needles - I suppose it's a start *eye roll*

So my dilemma is this: If I push the by-law issues, as I am currently not sure where they are at, I can likely have the house repaired. However, I have no idea where the landlord's head is at and if he even realizes yet that he has no tenants, and if he is suddenly (finally) forced to fix up the house he is probably going to want to have tenants living in the house to help pay for the repairs. In the past 5+ years there has yet to be one set of "good" (quiet, tidy) tenants in the place, I'm thinking that the next batch won't be great just because they have fancy new eavestroughs on the house...

I think I'm going to leave it for a while and push the issue again when there is bad tenants in there. The house may be unsightly but in theory it won't get worse quickly all on its own, however if a new batch of people move in there might be more problems than there are right now. This particular time I'm not going to chase down the by-law folks to make sure they are enforcing.

I made a difference and I can prove it!

You know that warm feeling you get when you accomplish something big? I've got it right now. Now, I certainly didn't accomplish this singlehandedly, but if I hadn't have been a squeaky wheel (a little like my post about the blue roof - with update here) then it's entirely possible that nothing would have changed.

Picture it. Winnipeg, 2010. (Golden Girls reference purely for my own amusement). In my early days of Dear 311, I came across this little gem of a house.

Just for fun, lets do a little test on what violations we can see from this side alone. If you answered, peeling paint, missing soffits and eavestroughs, partial (improper) boarding of the front door, missing address and unsafe front stairs missing a handrail (required if there are more than 3 steps) well then you have an incredible eye for detail (and the ability to see past the edge of the photo since the sins of the stairs aren't really visible!)

Initially my complaint was brushed off, but I persisted.  This is what the house looks like today:

No really, it's the same house!

I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty much over the moon. I'm the little grain of sand that made the City oyster produce a pearl, see, a little irritation isn't always a bad thing!  Person by person, house by house we can create change. Okay, enough patting myself on the back, see you on May 7th!

Procrastinators of the world unite....fail?

I think they might kick me out of the procrastinators club.  I actually got a bunch of stuff done off my "to do" list this weekend.  The garage door now locks (probably should've done that one a bit sooner!), frosted the glass on the bathroom door (why it was clear in the first place I'm not sure, house came that way - that one has been on the list for, ahem, 5 years), took some pictures of stuff and put it on kijiji, put an owl on the roof so that the freaking pigeons might actually stay away, watched a movie that I had borrowed from a friend.... there were other things I'm sure but it was such a busy weekend I don't even remember them all now!

Example of what gets left by bins

Moving day

I suppose one other thing that I usually do in bits and pieces but I decided to do a blitz on (as inspired by A Day in the Hood) was to report some by-law infractions. I went down two back lanes in my neighbourhood (about six blocks worth of each) and came up with THIRTY FIVE separate addresses to report to 311, many with multiple items/violations. Now, this wasn't me getting all picky and looking for the most minor of infractions, this was mostly bulky garbage in back lanes or piled up in back yards. A total of 15 couches/loveseats, 36 mattresses and about 8 extremely derelict cars (broken windows, up on blocks, sunken into ground etc).  All of that from just two back lanes (about 12 blocks total). Can you imagine if I was looking for dangling eavestroughs and peeling paint?!

Since I think I may have invited folks over for a BBQ when I visited the Winnipeg Internet Pundits show last week, let me revise that invite slightly - I will be taking part in the St. John's Community Clean-up on Saturday May 7th and I would like to ask you to come.  The clean-up starts at 10am (varying start points, TBA) and will have a wind-up at noon at Ralph Brown Community Centre (corner of McGregor and Machray) that will have a BBQ or some other sort of food goodness.  How does this tie in to my post you ask? Simple. Do not procrastinate and think "oh that sounds good, I should do that, I'll remember this" or "neat, what a great idea to get to see the North End and meet Winnipeg Girl, it's so important I know I won't forget". Stop. Take out your phone and go to the little calendar function. I'll wait. Okay, now put in an event or whatever you call it with your phone and put in an alarm for 9am on Saturday May 7. It should say this: Get butt out of bed, explore Winnipeg and help clean it up - go to North End to help Winnipeg Girl and her community. Now.

See how easy that will be? For those of you who don't use a mobile phone (?!) get out your pen and write it on the calendar on your wall that you got from your insurance place or wherever it is that people still get wall calendars. DON'T PROCRASTINATE!!  If you're good and show up maybe next time I'll have the BBQ at my place (and my place has steaks and beer and Bailey's, mmm.... Bailey's)

Updates! - because you want to know more

Well, I know you've all been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for this post to finally come along.  First, let me say, would the snow just hurry up and melt?!  I can almost feel spring coming, it's peeking its head out, the city feels lighter, people were out without jackets on the weekend. As much as I know that we don't really need any more precipitation, I'm looking forward to rain to wash the dirt off.  I also have a bunch of outdoor projects I want to get started on, by the time I'm done this summer I'm going to need the folks at Google to send their little Street View car back so they capture a new shot!

So, first update - in my attempt to provide some sort of journalistic integrity to my little blog I have been waiting to pounce on the media for inappropriately labeling crime as having happened in the North End and cite specific examples.  Of course it I haven't managed to catch it since my Geography post, which is probably a case of Uncle Murphy interfering. However, as a glass half-full sort of person, I've decided that the Winnipeg media was just so ashamed of their previous villanization of the North End that they have corrected their ways. Oh, and a shout out to all the criminals for spreading it around a bit as well - multiple stabbings in one day and only one was in my neighbourhood!

I know you've all been dying to know what happened with my roof - well, it seems as though they are going to fix it and they came and shoveled the snow off. I'm also getting the plaster repaired inside, which is particularly long overdue in my house (and that will finally enable me to finish my sunroom off as it will not be missing half a wall as it is now).

What happened with the blue roof from that other house? Glad you asked!  It seems as though By-law enforcement has decided to revisit the issue and maybe, just maybe, it does violate the Neighbourhood Liveability By-law after all. Neat. Who would have guessed? *cheeky eye roll*

Some good news for the Inner City neighbourhoods - City Council decided not to adopt the motion that was made to cut the funding by $500,000.  It is still very interesting that less than 0.1% of the the City budget goes to Housing and I hope that this wasn't Council testing the waters for how the community would react if the funding was to be cut permanently.  Our aging housing stock needs more help not less.  While we're at it, MB Hydro really needs to expand their Lower Income Energy Efficiency Program (LIEEP)to include renters as they are likely the demographic that is hit hardest by high heating bills.  It's not an impossible thing for Hydro to do, it would just require an agreement similar to when landlords get funding for creating/maintaining affordable housing to continue to rent to families that meet the LIEEP criteria (which in disadvantaged neighbourhoods happens pretty much by default anyway).

That's it, that's all I've got folks. I spent most of the weekend pissing around with artfully tiling with mini mosaic tiles so I didn't really see or do any of the fabulous things that Winnipeg may have had to offer up.  I did however, consume 3 of the big clear cup Slurpee's - Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper at the Sev on Henderson at Harbison if anyone is looking for it - to be honest not much different than a regular Dr. Pepper Slurpee (nectar of the gods) Did you start your Spring Cleaning yet?

**Oh, and still looking for my picture of the ladies urinal**

Would you want to live next door to this?

A story of my own to add to ...One Great City and his post about by-law enforcement (his follow up is here). I normally am a big fan of the folks over at by-law enforcement, but I just experienced my own WTF? moment with them.  Earlier this week, I reported a house to 311 that seems to have a roof made out of bright blue tarps, as per the Neighbourhood Liveability By-law, under Part 1, Standards Applicable to All Properties, Division 1 - Basic Maintenance Section 11 - Roofs of Buildings;

11(1) Roofs must be kept in good repair

I was just informed by the by-law officer (admittedly, a kudos goes out for speedy inspection) that there is nothing wrong with having a roof made out of tarps, with pieces of wood nailing it down, because it meets this part of the by-law;

11(2) The obligation in subsection (1) includes the obligation to ensure that

(a) roofs are constructed and maintained so as to prevent moisture from entering the building;

Apparently it does not appear as though this "roof" is leaking, so it's a-ok. I questioned the logic of this and even pointed out that it would seem then, if not violating the roof section of the by-law (wtf?) then it surely must be violating Section 5, General obligation to maintain property, which states:

5. Properties must be maintained so that they do not substantially depreciate the value of other land and buildings in the vicinity.

I got the equivalent of a verbal shrug as a response. Does this strike anyone else as being a bit under-zealous?? Had I known that I could just tarp my leaking roof, I could have saved a couple grand last summer. Heck, if word gets out, Dollarama is going to run out of tarps.

For the record, this house has been tarped like this since at least last fall, this is not a case of a property owner needing a temporary solution to an emergency that just popped up this spring. I also don't live next door, but certainly wouldn't want to!